While she was best known for her role as the iconic Princess Leia, actress and author Carrie Fisher was also an outspoken critic of Hollywood and mental health advocate. The Post's Elahe Izadi talks about her offscreen accomplishments. (Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)

“I have a chemical imbalance that, in its most extreme state, will lead me to a mental hospital,” Fisher said to Sawyer. “I used to think I was a drug addict, pure and simple — just someone who could not stop taking drugs willfully. And I was that. But it turns out that I am severely manic depressive.”

1 of 26

Full Screen

Autoplay

Close

Skip Ad

×

See photos of the life and career of Carrie Fisher (1956 - 2016)

View Photos

The former “Star Wars” actress, daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, best-selling author and activist died at age 60.

Caption

The former “Star Wars” actress, daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, best-selling author and activist died at age 60.

June 14, 1958Singer Eddie Fisher and wife Debbie Reynolds cuddle their two youngsters, 4-month-old Todd, left, and 19-month-old Carrie. Carrie played Princess Leia in “Star Wars” films and later wrote books about her fight against drug and alcohol addiction. She died Dec. 27, 2016, after suffering an apparent heart attack Dec. 23 on a flight between London and Los Angeles.AP

Fisher has been unusually outspoken for years about her mental health battles, something many fans mourned when Fisher died at age 60 on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack several days earlier on an airplane. The actress talked candidly about bipolar disorder and her treatments and how they affected her life. She acknowledged there was still a stigma when talking about mental health, but she wanted to help fight it.

“I am mentally ill. I can say that. I am not ashamed of that. I survived that, I’m still surviving it, but bring it on,” Fisher told ABC News.

Fisher, the daughter of Hollywood stars Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, said her father was also bipolar. “I recognized that something was wrong with him when I was 14 and he said, ‘Come see what I got in Asia.’ And he had gotten 180 silk suits in every different color,” Fisher said in a 2013 interview with HT Health. “My father was a drug addict, so I knew that I was like him.”

Though she sought treatment, took medication and underwent electroconvulsive therapy, Fisher battled with the illness her whole life. In 2013, she had a bipolar episode while performing on a cruise ship. She told People magazine that her medication went wrong and she wasn’t sleeping. The magazine reported that “shocked audience members watched as she rambled, slurred words and mumbled lyrics. Her dog relieved himself onstage as some people fled.” When the ship docked, Fisher checked into a psychiatric hospital to have her medication adjusted.

“The only lesson for me, or anybody, is that you have to get help. It’s not a neat illness. It doesn’t go away. I’m just lucky this hasn’t happened more,” Fisher said.

Over the years, Fisher also used humor to cope with her illness, such as when WebMD asked what it was like to be the “poster child” for bipolar disorder. “Well, I am hoping to get the centerfold in Psychology Today,’ ” she cracked.

“That’s my way of surviving, to abstract it into something that’s funny and not dangerous,” she told People. “It is not an entertainment. I’m not going to stop writing about it, but I have to understand it.”

Emily YahrEmily Yahr is an entertainment reporter for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2008 and has previously written for the Boston Globe, USA Today, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader and the American Journalism Review. Follow